Our big thanks to everyone who came out for the Italiano Tenth Anniversary show at Radio last Friday.

The Beatings released Italiano in February 2002, giving birth to Midriff Records and beginning our voyage in the world of independent music. Italiano was picked as the fifth best record of 2002 by the Washington Post, and was received incredibly well nationally as we crisscrossed the country touring in support. Ten years and one month later, we took the stage at Radio to perform the album in its entirety. To the best we can recollect, it was a first.

The night was kicked off with a tremendous set by Louder My Dear, with frontman Dave multi-tasking the night away with DJ sets under his Celebrity Handjob moniker. Following LMD was NYC’s Relations, whose post-punk set blew us away. Keep an eye on those kids, won’t you?

Ian Adams (or EEE as he often signs his work) has been a fixture on the Boston music and art scene for twenty years. He first gained recognition with his psycho-surf band 8-Ball Shifter, which he followed by fronting sleaze-rockers Rock City Crime Wave. A few years ago he released a solo effort on Midriff Records titled Stay Up Late (produced by Eldridge Rodriguez) and today he’s got a new rock project called Zen Lung.

We are huge fans of Ian Adams’ artwork. Over the course of the next few weeks we will be posting galleries of his work in a new blog feature called That Looks Awesome.That Looks Awesome will focus on visual artists that we admire and showcase our favorite pieces. But first, as an introduction, welcome to the dark world of the illist of illustrators, Boston’s own Ian Adams.

Ian Adams: Illustrator was shot, directed and produced by Midriff Records’ in-house team of Cameron Keiber and Tom Bellotti.